Most teachers enjoy their profession despite feeling underpaid and unrecognised for their work, and more and more want to retire, a national survey shows.
In June, at the end of the school year, more than three thousand teachers took part in a national survey, and the majority (75.3%) said they felt professionally fulfilled: they enjoyed teaching, but more and more dreamed of reform.
In an aging class, the number of teachers looking to retire continues to increase. This summer, 16.4% said they wanted to retire early (up from 14.5% in 2023), and another 13.8% expected it to happen within the next five years (up from 12.7% in 2022).
The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation has a plan in which it hopes that those on the brink of retirement will agree to postpone their retirement in exchange for an extra 750 euros gross per month, which will help reduce the number of students not attending classes.
The study, conducted by the National Federation of Education (FNE) and the Association for Training and Research in Education and Work (AFIET), also shows that 82.8% of respondents admit that they would not encourage a young person to become a teacher.
There are also fewer people who want to continue teaching because they enjoy it: last summer, according to a survey, there were 45.1% of them, and now there are only 35.5%.
“Too much administrative work” remains the biggest challenge they face, followed by difficulties in reconciling professional and family life.
There was an increase in the number of teachers who consider indiscipline in the classroom to be the biggest problem (from 10.8% to 16.5% of teachers), as well as those who believe that they have too many students (from 11.8% to 13.9%).
Added to these problems is the feeling of a lack of public recognition of one’s profession (87.7%), a problem that has also worsened in just one year (an increase of 4.8 percentage points).
When it comes to career prospects, nearly nine in ten (89.2%) see them as disappointing or unattractive, with a slight improvement continuing: in 2021, 96.2% saw their career future as disappointing or unattractive, up from 94% last year.
More than one in four respondents say schools need more teachers and assistants, while 16.8% choose the option of supporting students with special educational needs.
When it comes to new digital tools, they understand that they are a resource for learning, but they have concerns about their use in lessons and breaks.
The majority still opposes the use of digital aids in the teaching process of their students. This process was initiated by the previous team of the Ministry of Education and caused strong resistance from parents.
Teachers also want schools to have more autonomy in determining curriculum, calendars and even student assessment models, according to a survey conducted between June 14 and June 28, 2024, that surveyed 3,570 teachers from preschool to high school.
Every fourth respondent (41.4%) had work experience from 21 to 30 years, 18.9% – from 31 to 35 years, and 17.4% already had work experience of more than 35 years.